Extreme Networks Expands Switching Platform

Extreme Networks is growing its switching portfolio with the new ExtremeSwitching hardware.

The new X870 series is a high-density 100GB fixed form switch family, while the ExtremeSwitching X620-16p and X460-G2 are Ethernet multi-rate switches.

The X870 chassis is a single 1RU box that can support multiple Ethernet interface speeds, including 10Gb, 25Gb, 40Gb, 50Gb and 100Gb. There are initially two models of the X870 that Extreme is selling. The X870-32c is being positioned as a spine switch, with support for up to 32 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports or up to 128 10 GbE ports.

The ExtremeSwitching X870-96x-8c box in contrast is being positioned as a high-density leaf switch, supporting up to 96 ports of 10 GbE.

The X460-G2 is an aggregation switch and provides Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capabilities with support fro the IEEE 802.2at standard. There are two model of the X460-G2 including a 48 port and a 28 port model. Up to eight X460-G2 switches can be stacked together for even more capacity.

Finally the new X620-16p is an edge switch focussed on 10 GbE applications. The new switch can support 12 x 100Mb/1Gb/2/5Gb/5Gb/10GBASE-T PoE.

The support for 2.5 and 5 GbE is part of the IEEE 802.3bz standard effort that the NBASE-T alliance has help to promotein recent years.

"The latest additions to our product portfolio work in tandem to provide customers with solutions to enhance the value and simplify the operations of their enterprise networks across campuses and overall data center operations," Dan Dulac, Vice President, Product Management & Solution Strategy, Extreme Networks, said in a statement.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.